Interpretation
of Assumption of the Virgin by Titian

This altarpiece
by Titian, one of the most inspirational works of Christian
art, is surely among the greatest
Renaissance paintings of the Venetian School. The largest work of
its type in Venice (over 22 feet tall), it was Titian's first major commissioned
work in the city and took him two years to paint. It hangs over the high
altar in the Franciscan Basilica of S. Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, where
its colour and colossal size ensures that it can be seen from the other
end of the church. When it was unveiled in May 1518, it instantly established
the young artist as the pre-eminent figure of High
Renaissance art in Venice. And it wasn't just its huge size, it was
a revolutionary composition. Because while earlier religious
paintings inside churches had been relatively static, with statue-like
saints and regal Madonnas, Titian's figures are bursting with energy and
life, thus giving the work enormous emotional power and drama. The brilliant
Venetian neoclassical sculptor Antonio
Canova (1757-1822) described this work as the most beautiful painting
in the world. In 1818, it was removed from the altar and transferred to
the Venice Academy of Fine Art, where it remained for a century before
being returned to the Frari in 1919.

Composition

While a lesser painter might have shrunk
from the massive expanse of panel before them, Titian simply divided this
exquisite work of Biblical art into
three sections. The lowest register represents the terrestrial plane where
the disciples witness the assumption; in the middle section, the Virgin
Mary soars upward, surrounded by a swarm of angelic cherubim, towards
the top section representing Heaven, where God awaits her. The star of
the painting is of course the Madonna, who is shown as being elevated
upwards in a whirl of drapery on solid-looking clouds. Illustrating an
important event in Roman Catholicism - the moment when Mary is assumed
into Heaven - it is the most famous Assumption in Renaissance
art, if not all Western art. One gets the feeling that she is not
just a symbol of salvation but perhaps a symbol of Venice, too.

Above the Virgin, the heavenly zone is
suffused with golden light (allegedly in a homage to the tradition of
Venetian mosaic art), while below her
set in shadowy earth the apostles (Saint Peter, Saint Thomas and Saint
Andrew) are stunned by the miraculous happening but also distraught at
losing the mother of Christ their saviour. They implore her to stay, but
her gaze is already directed towards Heaven. There, she is awaited by
God, his face painted in Impressionistic style, who looks with a strict
yet sad face on his children below.

Its effect on High
Renaissance painting was immediate. When first unveiled, Titian's
cinquecento contemporaries
were immediately struck by the upward-striving dynamics, the dramatic
expressiveness of the scene and the agitation of the figures. It is perhaps
no coincidence that, within 12 months, the mid-air quality and upward
motion of the painting was emulated by Raphael
(1483-1520) in the Transfiguration
(c.1518-20, Pinacoteca Apostolica, Rome). See also: Legacy
of Venetian Painting on European art

Colour

Nowadays, Titian is most famous for his
rich, sensual use of colour and
his radical technique of painting. Brushloads of colour
pigments appear to float across the painting. His virtuoso handling
of colour is evident in the Assumption: see how the two disciples
in red form a pyramid with the Madonna, drawing our eyes up to the red
robe of God. Not long after finishing the Assumption, Titian painted
a second large altarpiece in the Frari, known as The Madonna of the
Pesaro Family (1519-26), which is an even better showcase of his exquisite
rendering of the luxurious silks and velvets for which Venice was famous.
And by moving the image of the Virgin and Child off-centre it again demonstrated
the young artist's restless innovation. Titian went on to complete several
other influential altar paintings, such as the Death of St Peter Martyr
(152630, Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, now lost), which was considered
by Giorgio Vasari to be
his greatest work.

Influences

Titian's Assumption of the Virgin
takes added inspiration from several sources outside Venice. Compositionally,
it shares certain iconographical features with the Sistine
Madonna (1513-14) and other works of Raphael, while the vigorous
figures of the disciples echo those in Michelangelo's Genesis
fresco in the Sistine Chapel. In any event, the painting seems
to indicate a clear desire on Titian's part to escape the confines of
Venetian painting in order to establish his own universal style of religious
art: a style which incorporates power and drama as well as the traditional
Venetian appreciation of decorative
art, and clearly alludes to the coming school of Mannerism.

The Golden Age of the Renaissance in
Venice

Titian's long career coincided largely
with Venice's Golden Age which came to an abrupt if not Biblical end in
1575, with a virulent plague, which decimated the city's population. Titian
died from it the following year and was buried in the same church that
houses his Assumption of the Virgin.